Big Beach Taps Robin Schwartz To Head TV Division

Veteran television executive Robin Schwartz is joining Big Beach as head of the company’s TV division.

Based in Los Angeles, Schwartz will work closely with company founders Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf in creating series that Big Beach produces. Schwartz also will work with the company’s West Coast division Beachside, led by Alex Turtletaub and Michael B. Clark. Molly Breeskin, a TV executive at Big Beach, remains at the company’s New York office.

“We have always put an emphasis on producing distinctive, original, humanistic stories. Branching out into episodic storytelling is a natural progression for the company and we are excited to bring someone with such great experience and similar sensibility as Robin to our team,” said Turteltaub.

Related Story

“We want to bring what we know best, the independent film model, to TV,” added Saraf. “We’ve worked with some incredible talent over the years, as has Robin. We look forward to creating an environment where those relationships and relationships with new people, result in some great TV shows.”

Big Beach has been a leading producer and financier of independent film for the last 12 years with pics such as Little Miss Sunshine, Sunshine Cleaning, Safety Not Guaranteed and Loving, which is currently in release.

Schwartz most recently served as President of Television at Brillstein Entertainment Partners where she oversaw the development and production of television series. Under her leadership, Brillstein generated a robust development slate setting up projects at Showtime, FX, Amazon, Hulu, TV Land, Freeform and multiple animated projects at 20th.

Schwartz will continue as executive producer on the upcoming Elizabeth Olsen vehicle Widow created by Kit Steinkellner along with show runner J.J. Philbin and BEP tv.

Previously, Schwartz oversaw the staff and operations of OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network as its founding President. Schwartz joined OWN from Regency Television where she produced programming such as Malcolm in the Middle (Fox), Bernie Mac (Fox), Wonderfalls (Fox) and Thief (FX).

“Big Beach has proven to be experts at shining a spotlight on the intimacies of the human experience and mining small moments for their overarching truths,” said Schwartz. “I can’t wait to bring similar storytelling to television, and continue to build strong connections between the colliding worlds of indie film and tv.”